Mastroeni overcomes ankle injury and is ready to play

He limped off with an ankle injury in the second half of last
Friday’s match at Chivas USA. On Tuesday he said he was raring to go for the
home opener Saturday against Chicago.

Mastroeni mentioned how encouraged he was by the victory
last weekend, not least considering how little he and new signing Jeff
Larentowicz had actually played together before the game.

“It was a really interesting dynamic – we had only played
small-sided games during the preseason,” he said. “I was happily surprised by
how organized we were.”

His and Larentowicz’s job was mainly to get the ball to the player
with pace like Colin Clark and last Friday’s goal scorer, Omar Cummings. However,
every now and then you will also see them join the attack.

Injury Update:Apart from Mastroeni, whose injury was suffered
by the same ankle on which had had surgery during the preseason, other players
are also nursing knocks. The only real doubt for Saturday, other than long-term
absentees such as Ross Schunk, is wide midfielder, Jamie Smith.

The Scotsman, who is rehabbing a hamstring pull, was
training lightly on the side on Tuesday. Frenchman and vocal leader, Julien
Baudet, who sat out the Chivas USA game on the bench, pronounced himself fit
and looks set to play a part against Chicago. Conor Casey sat out Tuesday’s
session in order to rehab in the locker room.

One other notable absentee from training on Tuesday was new
boy Marvell Wynne. Wynne, who signed from Toronto only last week and had an
outstanding game on Friday, has flown back to Canada to get organized after the
flurry of activity which saw him head down to California last week and straight
into the team.

Wynne is expected to be back in training Thursday with the
team after a day off for the squad on Wednesday.

TV News: The Rapids recently signed a new contract with Fox
affiliate KWGN Channel 2, aka The Deuce. The channel, which will be covering
nearly all the Rapids games this season, debuted coverage with the Chivas USA
game.

Despite some glitches (missing start of second half and
leaving out the game clock and score for a long stretch), the broadcast was a
major step-up on the previous coverage offered by local cable station Altitude,
owned by Rapids’ owner Stan Kroenke.

Both Fox and Channel 2 are planning weekly coverage of the
team. In a local market where sports are dominated by the Broncos, the Nuggets,
the Rockies and the Avalanche, this is great news indeed for the
soccer-obsessed among us.